tornado AsyncHTTPClient accumulates decompressed chunks without size limit (gzip bomb)
- When
- Where
- Global (internet)
- Category
- cyber_advisory · pip
Tornado's gzip decompression routines work in limited-size chunks, but have no overall limit for the total size of decompressed chunks that they will accumulate (There has always been a limit for the total *compressed* size). This allows a malicious server to consume effectively unlimited amounts of memory if it is accessed via SimpleAsyncHTTPClient in its default configuration. `HTTPServer` is not affected in its default configuration, but it is if `decompress_request=True` is set. This bug is fixed in Tornado 6.5.6. `max_body_size` is now checked both for the compressed and cumulative decompressed size of the response. Prior to upgrading, this issue can be mitigated by setting `decompress_response=False` or using `CurlAsyncHTTPClient`.
Sources
- GitHub Advisory Database ↗ · first seen 2026-06-15 20:19 UTC
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